Duff McKagan Interview

Sick sounds very cathartic and retrospective; can you tell us what you were going through during the writing of the album?

Duff McKagan: You know, lyrics I wrote for Guns or Velvet or stuff even before that, were always just right on the nose, something that happened to me or an observation of mine. On this record, there are definitely a lot of observations, like “Mother’s Day,” I took three stories of three friends of mine who passed away because of drug overdose and I made it about a woman. So I try to get at least twice removed or once removed from the actual story and not have it be so “on the nose.” But there are songs like “Wasted Heart” and “IOU” that are kind of direct odes to my wife. And there are songs that are playful, like “Flatline,” it’s the single, it’s a classic breakup “f*ck you.” It’s nothing that happened to me directly, but we’ve all felt that way about a chick or if you’re a chick you’ve felt that way about a guy.

But I’m trying to get away from such autobiographical songs. I write a lot now for Playboy and Seattle Weekly, so I’m learning how to write and separate myself from the story. I’m writing every week for the Weekly and I don’t want people knowing everything about me. So how do you get into that? How do I tell people about something I did but not give too much about myself? So I try to do that with my songs, but there are songs that influenced my life, drug use, sadness, and the good stuff.

Is “The Slide” about your drug use?

DM: It is, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah (with gravity), I kinda put a whole big story into one thing.

You were also influenced by The Damned; are the opening drums on “The Slide" a deliberate homage to their song “New Rose?”

DM: It certainly wasn’t on purpose and Geoff, the drummer, he came up with that drum intro and he’s not influenced by The Damned; it was just something that came to him. I heard that once, you’re the second person who’s brought that up. I didn’t notice it at all, but I totally get it, for sure. But, hey man, if nothing else, it’s a nod.

You’re a pretty busy man, how do you juggle your various projects (from Loaded to Velvet to writing two columns) and then balance those with life?

DM: Well, I have my dog in the backseat right now and I’m taking him to the dog-walker place and I’m on my way to rehearsal. I do my interviews early in the morning as much as I can. I started at seven this morning so that I can get rehearsal and interviews out of the way by two and that will leave the rest of the day somewhat open for me. I have to write, so I’ll write at night and spend time with my kids -- it’s important, they’re 8 and 11, they’re girls, they need their father figure at this point, these are the important ages for girls. We’re trying to keep them off the pole. You gotta tell your daughters that you love them and that they’re beautiful every day.

Right now I’m balancing a lot, but I’m young enough that I have the energy to do all this shit. When it gets too much, I’ll say enough and I’ll take a couple things off of my plate. For right now, I can handle it all and I like what I’m doing.

What do you think of Chinese Democracy?

DM: It’s funny; so many people have asked me that question and I gotta figure out why people think my opinion matters.

[And then, our call dropped.]

Sorry about that. I didn’t want you to think I hung up because of the question (laughs). Perfect timing.

I think Axl did a great job on that record and other than that, the songs and the band are a completely different thing, so for me to really comment on the band, I might as well be commenting on the new Slipknot record. It’s that far removed from me.

We [Guns] made our last record in ’92 or ’93 or something -- that was 16 years ago. That was a lifetime ago for me. I was still using and stuff back then. So, that’s how long ago it was for me.

It’s great [Chinese Democracy]. There are songs on it that I like and there are songs on it that I don’t like, just like any other record.